To conquer or bring into submission and take all of the possessions of an enemy; To Rob a person or a place of goods or possessions by force or violence.
God used this word 204 times in Scripture; 200 times to Israel in the Old Testament; 2 times to the Body of Christ (both in Colossians 2); and 2 times to Israel’s Little Flock in the Tribulation book of Hebrews.
The FIRST Instance … for us today.
We are warned of the violent forces employed today that threaten to bring us under the subjection of the enemy, and that rob us of our reward … but these violent forces are not physical; Philosophy and Vain Deceit ( (a single element), Traditions of men and the Rudiments of the world.
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
The enemy in the Dispensation of Grace is not physical (Ephesians 6:12), though the attacks are administered by men … men teach the philosophy of religion, and deceitfully puff-up your vanity; Religion is fashioned after the Traditions of Men, not after the teaching of Rightly Divided Scripture; the Rudiments of the world is the teaching and practice of Presumed Public Knowledge … information that everyone assumes to be true because they hear it everywhere.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Notice that we wrestle … it is not a battle … Christ has already won the battle. Notice also that we wrestle “against” not with.
To wrestle with something is to be locked-in the struggle and conflict with it, i.e. habits, decisions, choices, desires, etc.
To wrestle “against” something is to resist the force of it, to take a stand; i.e. stand against the lies and False Doctrine of religion; religious philosophy, religious deceitfulness, religious traditions, and the rudiments of the world.
Pending the day of the redemption of heaven, the beaten foe (rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places) vie for control via influence by the perpetration of false doctrine … religion. We are told to take a stand against it. The way we are told to do that is through the teaching of the truth of God according to Rightly Divided Scripture.
SECOND Instance … for us today.
Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
What God tells us here, is that Christ has already conquered the enemy, and has already taken all the possessions of the forces that we wrestle against.
So … being that Christ has already triumphed over the principalities and powers and stripped them of their power and authority … why do we still wrestle with them?
The “rulers of the darkness of this world” and the “spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12) are able to prevail through the practice of Satan’s policy of evil, that was established in Genesis 3; the practice of religion; the teaching of False Doctrine that prevents the salvation and redemption of mankind.
What the redeemed of God are actually wrestling against is religion and their false doctrine.
See also Beguile, Deceit, Philosophy, Rudiment, Tradition, Vain